The present invention concerns a disposable food tray, most particularly for use with an infant car seat.
In the last half of the twentieth century, people have become increasingly more mobile. As the speed of life has increased, new consumer products and services have been developed to ease the burden of or even capitalize on this hectic pace. One service in particular has enjoyed phenomenal growth since its inception in the 1950's, namely, the fast food industry. The fast food industry has quickly grown from a simple substitute for the home-cooked lunch or dinner into a mobile meal.
Increasingly, consumers, particularly American consumers, are eating meals in their vehicle. The average American eats about fifteen meals in a car. In order to address this growing phenomenon, the fast food industry has developed new food products and packaging to facilitate eating a meal in the car. Thus far, the focus has been on the convenience of the driver.
This proliferation of on-the-road eating is perhaps most widely driven by children and infants. It can be surmised that for every meal eaten by a child in an automobile, there are at least five fast food snacks consumed. As any parent or child care provider knows, the notion of the in-car snack or meal for an infant can be a messy proposition. Typically, the fast food is provided in a sack 10, as depicted in FIG. 1. The foodstuff may include a sandwich 12 of some type and french fries 14, each in an individual package. An infant I is seated in a car seat C within a vehicle as shown in FIG. 2. The car seat includes a cross bar B extending across the front of the seat. When the infant I is consuming the foodstuff, the sandwich 12 and french fries 14 are usually free standing in the child's lap or somewhere within the car seat. In many cases, this manner of feeding a fast food meal to an infant in the car is simply a recipe for disaster.
In response to this problem, certain devices have been developed to catch loose food that inevitably escapes consumption by infant. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,820 shows a bib that is attached to the car seat bar at one end and around the neck of the infant at the other end. Another approach is taken in U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,107 in which a portable travel tray is connected between the infant car seat and the passenger seat directly ahead.
These approaches can help alleviate some of the mess and frustration associated with on-the-road infant meals. However, in each case they require a product that must be kept handy in the event that a meal or snack is required in the vehicle. Moreover, none of these approaches provides a disposable solution to the problem. Finally, all of the prior devices require the purchase of a separate consumer item.
Therefore, there remains a need for a disposable food tray that is particularly adapted for use with an infant car seat. Since the volume of usage may be fairly high, the disposable tray must also be extremely inexpensive and economical.